Cute automation at the Chicago Spring site. Best thing: your visit restores the East 63rd Street ‘L’. Second best thing: Click on a link, it takes you around the map to a destination. Less good thing: the destination seems to have nothing to do with the subject treated. Still, it’s a cool presentation.
Somebody somewhere can do something equally original, and even more functional, for the Henry George School.
Chicago Park District’s new harbor at 31st street reportedly cost $103 million and can accommodate 1000 boats. “Rates for the new harbor range from about $3,780 for a 35-foot slip to more than $10,000 for the longest slips of 70 feet and more, excluding taxes and a 25 percent nonresident surcharge.”
One could imagine that these figures might actually cover debt service, maintenance, and the economic rent of the lakefront location. But there’s no such indication in the Park District’s 2011-15 Capital Improvement Plan, which lists funding and projects, but makes little effort to tie the two together so there’s no indication of how much any project costs nor how it’s paid for. Nothing in the latest posted (2010) Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, either.
But in the process of browsing the District’s web site, I did discover that I would be violating their regulations if, without a permit, I post on this web site a photo that I took on Park District property.
The Public Building Commission has some information on their web site, including some contracts and many construction photos. Can’t wade thru all of the former, but they appear not to include any information on how the project is funded.
Just in case there was any doubt, Pam Martens in Counterpunch gives us a report on the Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center, where feeds from sophisticated spy cameras are integrated to essentially track anyone and everyone on the streets who might interest our supervisors. What’s news here, tho I suppose I already suspected it, is that partners in this operation are not just the NYPD, but also “the same firms under investigation in 50 states for mortgage and foreclosure fraud and widely credited with causing the Nation’s economic collapse.” Presumably they have added some of the proceeds of their crimes to the $150 million public money that’s been used for this project.
This post is about credit unions, and it seems to be turning into a rant. Rather than read it, I suggest you go here to see some entertaining short videos that the credit union folks have put together. My experience has been a bit different.
Occupy Wall Street are good folks, I’m sure. I even tried to display their banner on this blog, but for some reason the plugin doesn’t work here. Anyhow, they suggest I get away from the big banksters and open an account at a credit union.
I actually take advantage of the big banksters in a couple of ways, but that’s not for this post. Continue reading Maybe credit unions are more fun than banks
David Bernstein and Noah Isackson have a pretty good article in Chicago Magazine, Gangs and Politicians in Chicago: An Unholy Alliance. Focusing mainly on Alderman but also including State and Federal legislators, they assert that “gangs” provide the money, votes, and workers that enable officials to attain and retain their office. In exchange, the governments these legislators control provide funds and favors.
Isackson and Bernstein stop short of suggesting how to repair this problem, but reading thru the article it’s clear that the main way these “gangs” prosper is thru unauthorized distribution of drugs. And one of the main favors aldermen provide is assistance in avoiding “law enforcement” efforts to arrest them. End the drug prohibition, most of the “gangs'” income will end, and candidates will no longer get “gang” money. They’ll have to rely on crooked lawyers, lobbyists, etc.
Some of the drug money, of course, has gone into real estate, with “gang” members able to get favors such as rezoning and inspection waivers. A land value tax, by constraining real estate speculation, would be of assistance here.
Gary Lucido writes of a small parcel at 3710 N. Kenmore, offered at $9.9 million ($4950/sq ft) after failing to sell when offered at lower prices. While the price seems outrageous, the property is very close to Wrigley Field and could be used for a billboard or rooftop viewing platform. We know that the former use has commanded $350,000/year on a nearby building, which seems to justify a multi-million-dollar asking price.
So we have a parcel worth, let us say, five million dollars. What are the taxes? Continue reading Outrageous assessments
My only excuse for not posting since last month is that I’ve been diverted with other projects, including the new hgchicago site. The bad news is that it’s still not all there. The good news is that it’s WordPress-based and that the new version of Firefox, 7.0.1, no longer freezes my OS. Never did solve the Opera vs. WordPress problem, but now I’m back to Firefox for most things.
Chicago is no longer a media center, but still important enough to have Occupy action. I stopped by Jackson/LaSalle this afternoon, there were a few hundred people with signs and a good attitude.
The scheduled teach-instarted nearly on time, with St. Xavier Professor Aisha
Karim speaking about Marx’s Communist Manifesto. Unfortunately, the acoustic conditions and the speaker’s accent prevented me from a full understanding of her case.
It looks from the previews like WordPress might be doing some things to my images, but I’ll wait to see the actual post.
In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need to pay personal income tax, so nobody could compile any data about our individual income (Land value tax is linked to the land, not the owner, so owner identification isn’t needed for tax purposes.) This world being less than ideal right now, it is nice that the Tax Foundation has mined IRS data for these cool tables linking interstate migration of taxpayers and the amount of income reported. We see that, net in 2008, more taxpayers moved to Illinois from Michigan than from any other state, while the greatest number of net departures was to Texas. Altho net emigrants to Florida were less than 1/3 those to Texas, their total “adjusted gross income” was greater, presumably affluent retirees.
The Census Bureau is another source of interstate migration data. Those reports are simple population numbers with no income data attached, altho I believe the original source data includes income. The Tax Foundation’s data of course can’t recognize people who do not file federal income tax returns.
Not more transit options; we’re still stuck with CTA bus, CTA rail, Pace bus, and Metra rail. But now we have more advocacy options. None of them is easy to join. A biased summary (listed in descending order of web site quality) is:
Many have complained about cattle-car conditions aboard CTA trains, exacerbated by the few, small, and uncomfortable seats. The newest 5000-series cars are probably the worst in this regard, as nearly all the seats are longitudinal, so, if you manage to snag a seat, you’re stuck in a 17.5″ space with cta-rider-bodies on each side of you. If you’re only 17″ wide (including your arms, unless you detach those for transport), you’ll fit OK provided that you remain quite stationary. And altho the total number of seats is said to be the same as was provided in the 3200-series cars, that’s fewer than any earlier models.
Not that CTA conducted any surveys or hearings prior to deciding on this seating configuration. For comparison, consider BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit serving north-central California. Their seats are 22″ wide. Riders have indicated a willingness to cut that down to 20″, but no further. How does BART know this?
Because they conducted a survey. They took some seats around and asked folks what they thought. They also provide comparisons to seats in other cities, as indicated on this pdf.
Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that the BART board is elected, not appointed.
Have CTA apologists anything to say here?